BRATISLAVA, December 8, (WEBNOVINY) — The Finance Ministry has failed again to audit how the Supreme Court led by Stefan Harabin handles public funds. On Thursday, its auditors were unable to check the Supreme Court’s finances already for the sixth time. „The scenario from this summer repeated also today when auditors were received but not by the president of the Supreme Court who chose to take a day off,” informed the Finance Ministry’s spokesman Martin Jaros. The head of the Supreme Court administration Jozef Kafka received ministerial comptrollers The audit was formally opened to be interrupted consequently. According to Kafka, the Supreme Court insists that there exist legal obstacles to perform the audit. The Supreme Court cites a verdict of the Bratislava Regional Court according to which the Finance Ministry does have the right to audit the Supreme Court. Jaros however says that the ministry holds a different opinion, for which it found support in the verdict of the Constitutional Court that decided in a disciplinary procedure against Stefan Harabin that also the Supreme Court as the administrator of a budgetary chapter falls under the law on financial control. The Finance Ministry will repeatedly attempt to audit the Supreme Court, said the ministerial spokesman. Moreover, the Finance Ministry will inform Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska of its failure to do so and its reasons on Thursday.
The Supreme Court insists on the stance of the chairwoman of the administrative collegium Ida Hanzelova form July 15 of this year that the Finance Ministry’s audit of the Supreme Court cannot be executed. The reason are previous court decisions. „Due to the existing legal obstacle, which is the decision of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic from April 28, 2011, that confirms the decision of the Bratislava Regional Court from January 18, 2011 its execution continues to be impossible,“ said Hanzelova that time. The courts in question pointed to the fact in their verdicts that the Supreme Court is not a body of public administration but the top body of judicial power and according to them not a government organ but the Supreme Audit Office should audit the Supreme Court.
The Finance Ministry already wanted to audit the Supreme Court several times since 2010 without any success, as its auditors were denied access to the court on order of its President Stefan Harabin. Therefore, Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska filed a disciplinary motion against Harabin in November 2010 for repeatedly not allowing the Finance Ministry to audit the court’s spending. At the end of June, the Constitutional Court declared Supreme Court Chairman and ex-justice minister Harabin guilty of violating his responsibilities based on his duties in managing the court and financial and internal audits by repeatedly not allowing the Finance Ministry audit’s at the Supreme Court. The Constitutional Court disciplinary committee punished Harabin by reducing his salary by 70 percent for one year based on the motion Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska filed in November 2010, for repeatedly not allowing the Finance Ministry to audit the court.
On November 28, Zitnanska filed her last disciplinary motion against Harabin containing six points, out of which four cases involve grave disciplinary flaws incompatible with the function of a judge. The Constitutional Court started dealing with it on Wednesday. He might temporarily lose his Supreme Court top post. The non-public sitting of the Constitutional Court plenum yesterday ended with no results. The judges decided that they will first decide on objections of prejudice on December 14. Zitnanska and Harabin demand exclusion of eight of 13 judges from deciding on the case.
SITA